Hut stocking and Barrel huts or 'Storm in a tin can': Aoraki Mount Cook National Park

Hut stocking

As the rope tows closed down for the season at Round Hill and Ohau Ski areas, and the spring ski-patrolling on the Tasman Glacier coming to an end, the thoughts of many of the Mt Cook National Park Board staff would turn to another summer mountaineering season and the trips into the mountains to check and restock the huts.

As a ranger one of my responsibilities was for hut maintenance and the stocking of provisions for the 14 huts (huts with radios: Three Johns (Barron Saddle), Mueller, Hooker, Gardiner, Empress, Haast, Plateau, De la Beche, Malte Brun, Tasman Saddle, Onslow, Liebig, Murchison and Godley) and 2 shelters (shelters, no radios: Sefton & Classen Bivvies)  in the park. Basically all of the huts contained the same facilities: sleeping bags or blankets, cooking stoves and Tilly lanterns with kerosene fuel and meth for a primer, crockery and cutlery and lockable cupboards stocked with a variety of foodstuff for the maintenance teams, patrols, search & rescue and in dire circumstances emergency supplies for mountaineers trapped in the huts by extremely bad weather. There were also replacement batteries for the hut radios that connected climbers to the daily 7.00pm scheds operated by the Duty Ranger at Park Headquarters.

In the early 70’s hut stocking began in very early spring with ski-plane flights to the Upper Tasman Glacier landing strip with a full load of kerosene and meths, the kero in 4 gallon containers and the meths in1 gal containers. Occasionally, after the landing the plane would be bogged down in the deep powder snow as the pilot turned the plane in readiness for a take-off down the glacier. These occasions necessitated donning skis and get under the lowest wing and take as much weight as possible while the pilot put on max revs to gain some lift before some forward movement propelled the plane forward giving us a brief ski run before the plane became airborne and left us in a cloud of shimmering snow crystals. 

In the silence of the mountains all that was left was to attach skins to skis and begin the repetitious slog of carting the 40 or more gallons of fuel containers and supplies by sidling under Hochstetter Dome to the Tasman Saddle Hut which was perched on a narrow promontory of rock overlooking the upper ice-fall of the glacier. From the hut we skinned to Tasman Saddle before making the long ski run down the Murchison Glacier to the Murchison Hut to replace the radio battery and deliver a small amount of fuel. In those days the hut was slowly being twisted and buckled by movement in the rock beneath it so an overnight stay wasn’t very attractive and meant a long skinning return slog back to Tasman Saddle Hut rather than staying for the night.  

In the past a hut stocking team had been storm bound in this hut for 10 days it was always good to see a fine sunny morning herald a departure day.

Since the previous hut stocking a year earlier, there was a large accumulation of empty fuel containers, these were bundled together with a strap through the handles then fastened to the pack wherever possible. The sight of skiers heading down the ‘nose-dive’ almost smothered in a dozen or so white plastic containers was an apparition to behold. This was not easy skiing as power snow gave way to ice and vice versa leading to numerous tumbles that at times were almost impossible to get up from. Even so the loads were skied down as close as possible to where a ski-plane could land, which was usually Darwin Corner.

A hut stocking trip to Plateau was less strenuous as it was a relatively short carry from the ski-plane landing strip to the hut and all containers were flown out. However, the hut being in an exposed positions, would get severely blasted during the winter storms and with the snow being so cold and dry it was forced into every gap, crevice and opening in the corrugated iron. Even the building paper and wall lining did not prevent the bunkrooms from filling with snow necessitating the shovelling out of snow and the drying out of mattresses and sleeping bags.

It was on one such trip that a group of us discussed the difficulties of building mountain huts on-site and the problems incurred in building huts such as Empress (dropping materials from fix winged aircraft), Plateau (first attempts at framing were blown away in a storm) also the thought that there had to be a better weather resistant design for mountain huts and shelters. Amongst the hut stocking team, many of whom had experiences from work trips to the Antarctic and Himalaya was the idea that either domes or round shapes seems to perform the best. Another factor was that in the building of many of the huts in the park the building jobs had been fraught by bad weather resulting in building materials being lost and staff working in some difficult and at times hazardous conditions but in those days it was all good fun!!

Domes appeared complicated and would probably have to be built on site whereas a round, tube, barrel or tin-can shape hut could be constructed in the Park workshop and flown onto site. Sitting around a Tilly lamp, cups of hot tea with ginger-nut biscuits and muffled in down jackets we were enthused by the idea and keen to put the idea to Barrie Thomas the Chief Ranger and with his support the National Park Board to provide further support.

At the time there was support for a shelter to be built on the Copland Ridge as the trans-alpine crossing had become very popular with some poorly clad ‘trampers’ undertaking the trip. The sites on the eastern side of the Divide are limited with a preferred site on a narrow section of the rocky ridge just beneath the glacier/snowfield leading to the Pass. It is an exposed site with the potential for some extremely strong winds so any building would need to present limited resistance to wind, limited in size yet large enough to shelter half a dozen climbers. The first MCNP barrel hut was to be the Copland Shelter.

Copland Shelter

The concept was drawn up and the plan gained the necessary approvals in 1972. The construction got underway in the park workshop that was no more than the double garage at No.1 House (Build during the time of Harry Ayres).

The detailed design ideas were generated by the then park carpenter Stuart King, based on constructing 9 laminated kahikatea hoops. The shelter was constructed in 3 sections, 3 hoops per section with marine ply to form the inner and outer linings with an insulated cavity. The sections were then bolted together in tandem and covered in rolled galvanised iron sheets. The sheets covered approximately 90% of the circumference of the shelter but not under the shelter where it sat in the cradles. The strength of this building was in the laminated hoops or ribs.

Stuart King left the job just prior to completion and Max Dorfliger finished off the carpentry work. The building job, in the comfort of our own workshop, was the easy part the hard part was preparing the site for the shelter. The budget for the job was tight and any extra wasn’t easy to come by so a number of the site preparation trips were done on foot, sometimes backpacking the Atlas Copco rock drill which would perform well at the village level then throw tantrums at altitude so a sympathetic mechanic was needed to accompany it wherever it went. Reinforcing iron and cement was flown onto site by a helicopter operator who was working locally on a meat recovery operation. Finally the ridge that was to become the site was flattened and levelled by drill and sledge hammer. It was large enough to lay four parallel strips of reinforced concrete to ensure a level surface for the cradles that the shelter would sit in.

Flying the shelter onto site was going to be an undertaking testing both finances and experience. Fortunately in those days Barrie Thomas had a good working relationship with the RNZAF primarily for the use of Iroquois helicopters in SAR and training exercises. Again the RNZAF came to our assistance by using the shelter lift and locating as another training exercise.

 As I was put in charge of the exercise, a journalist who was somehow involved explained to me that he had done many adventurous missions in many dangerous places, met with various wild animals and for this reason needed to inform me that he was carrying a handgun and sought my approval. As we were using the military I handed the issue over to them and don’t recall if the guy got to fly or not.

Max, Stuart Thorne and I were flown onto the Copland Ridge and left to shovel frantically to clear the snow that had accumulated on site to expose the previously poured concrete foundation strips.

We waited patiently for the ominous thwack of the Iroquois two rotor blades that are so long that the rotor tips are revolving at such speed that they break the sound barrier. Even with the armour plated doors stripped off the Iroquois didn't have the power to lift and maneuver the whole hut onto site intact so it was unbolted and flown onto site in two sections. A minimal amount of work was needed on-site and after some careful positioning of the sections by the chopper crew these were bolted together to completed the shelter. On either side of the shelter a roll of chain link netting was unrolled over the cradles to form hammocks between the cradles that were then stapled to the cradles and loaded with rocks and boulders. On a later trip the cradles were further anchored down to bolts in the surrounding rock ridge.

The shelter was intended as an emergency survival refuge primarily for those climbers that having crossed the Copland Pass from the West Coast. Douglas Rock, the last hut on the Westland side, was a long trek back in the event of climbers being overtaken by stormy weather.  Even so the shelter began to become popular as an overnight stay with climbers from the Mt Cook side probably for a number of reasons, first the climbers could make use of the altitude and generally find cold frosty snow conditions ideal for a crampon ascent of the snow-slope to the Pass, secondly there was no charge for staying overnight unlike Hooker Hut some 1000 metres below.

What next?

With the thought of further hut replacements a debate was generated as to what climbers wanted from alpine huts which led to a ‘survey’ of all users of MPNP huts. At the time Aat Vervoorn was on the park staff and he prepared the questionnaire that basically gathered the demographics of the climbers, what they wanted and what they were prepared to pay for the hut facilities.

The survey results brought an interesting result and from memory that fell basically into two fairly equal categories:

1.The summer season climber who tended to be 30 years plus, a professional or at least well employed and was prepared to pay whatever it cost to have a fully facilitated hut that included blankets, sleeping bags, stoves, fuel, pots, pans cutlery, crockery and radios.

2. The vocational or student climber who tended to be in their 20’s and probably only occasionally employed. This group wanted basic shelters with virtually no facilities that were free of charge.

The survey came at a time when there was a move towards climbers being self-sufficient and responsible for their own safety, being encouraged to travel fully equipped and in the event of accident or trapped by bad weather could be reasonably expected to ensure their own survival. This trend favoured the second group, whereas the first group would travel with minimum equipment and rely on getting to huts in good weather and accident free. Countering this was the likelihood of the climbers in this group using aircraft to position them close to a hut (Plateau, Tasman Saddle, Pioneer and Barron Saddle were all close and accessible from a ski-plane landing strip) which enabled them to take in a much larger quantity of food supplies (fresh vegetables, meat and wine) than those that walked into the huts. The excesses often got left behind at the hut to the delight of those in group two.

Gardiner Hut

A couple of years later the decision was made to replace Gardiner Hut in the Hooker valley as during the winter months the hut was often buried deep in snow and during the Spring thaw became wet and damp. The site is at 1700 metres asl on the crest of Noeline (Pudding) Rock that forms the true left shoulder of the Hooker Glacier ice-fall. The materials for the 5 bunk hut was carried in on the backs of the early Hermitage guides and dated back to 1934 and was named after the prominent mountaineer of the times, Katie Gardiner. 

The Copland Shelter design and construction had worked well and the Park staff were keen to continue the barrel concept but with a new construction design concept that utilised the strength of corrugated iron as the core component, basically it is a grain silo on its side. At this time Ken 'Digger' Joyce was the park carpenter and he was responsible for the fitting out and turning the silo into a hut. Flooring and bunks provided further vertical and horizontal strength; otherwise it looks very much like the Copland Shelter.

Faye Kerr, Howard 'Twitty' Conway and I demolished and burnt on-site the old Gardiner Hut. Whilst we were here we were joined for a while by Alan and Geoff Gledhill probably better known as the Gledhill twins who then went over Baker Saddle to attempt a new route on Dilemma Peak. A southerly storm caught the Gledhill twins whilst descending from Dilemma Peak resulting in the death of Alan.

The next day we were attracted to the sounds of metal clinking sounds as someone ascended the wire ropes on Pudding Rock that gave easier access to Gardiner Hut during the summer when the Hooker icefall was badly broken-up. The climber turned out to be Peter Hillary who exclaimed “where’s the hut” buggered if I know, it was there a few moments ago! He joined us for another nights bivouac before having a ‘look’ at the Low Peak of Cook.

After the ashes of all the burnable material was scattered and the corrugated iron bundled up and readied for a helicopter flight out we collected out gear and headed down the wire ropes onto the glacier and back to more comfy beds as the southerly clouds gathered and swept up valley.

Although both Copland and Gardiner are barrel shaped huts their construction is quite different.  The basic strength of Gardiner is the 360 degrees of corrugated iron, a silo, rather than the iron used just as a sheath around 90% the Copland barrel.

The grain silo that was to become Gardiner Hut arrived at the Mt Cook village on the back of a truck delivered from Timaru and offloaded at the new park workshop on Black Birch Fan. The manner in which the hut was to be fitted out had already been designed, some might say on the back of a cigarette packet but quite some thought had gone into it. 

The newly delivered silo was fully sealed so it meant that door and window placements had to be carefully calculated before the silo was cut into with a gas cutter. 

Once inside, the fitting out began with insulated wall panelling giving an octagonal feel to the interior, flooring, two tiered bunks for 12 climbers and a cooking bench beneath the window.

Many of the summer casuals, employed as mountaineers for search & rescue events enjoyed working with the Park Carpenter, Ken Digger Joyce to fit out the hut but it was more of a perk to be on the on-site construction team (John (Cocker) Moore, Carl (Tommo) Thompson and Ian (Whit) Whitehouse) that got to put everything together on-site.

This time there was a bit more money in the budget and, as the RNZAF had become less enthusiastic to be involved in work the private sector could undertake, a Llama helicopter was brought in to do the job. Gardiner was a larger hut than Copland so a heftier machine was needed.  Again the intact barrel and cradles were too heavy to lift in one load so the cradles were flown in first and located on the concrete pads before our baby (the barrel) now somewhat lighter was lifted and settled back into its cradles.

Testing the design

At this time many rangers were involved in a prototype of the 'Park and Rec' 6 week, block course at Lincoln College where a lot of course time was spent on design and engineering of huts, shelters, bridges, toilets visitor centres etc. Amongst the course participants the barrel and silo hut designs were openly debated but from most Rangers there was strong opposition as they found it emotionally impossible to break with the traditional style of mountain hut.

My first opportunity to visit the finished hut was during the following spring’s hut stocking along with Digger and the Parks & Rec engineering lecturer Ian Calvert. It was Ian’s first trip into the high mountains and we flew into the highest hut in the Park, Empress Hut to restock it with fuel and change the radio battery. The winter snows had covered most of the crevasses and it was an easy trudge, between the majestic mountains of Aoraki and La Perouse, down the glacier to Gardiner Hut. As if it had been ordered, an overnight storm hit us that helped reinforce Ian’s positive opinion of the silo in such an exposed location on Pudding Rock.  Our night at Gardiner was quiet and comfortable even though a strong storm raged outside, whilst Ian commented that when one has to sit out the storm let it be in a tin can.

Ian was an enthusiastic supporter of hut designs that would have less resistance to the elements in the high mountains. He had some of his Lincoln College students to build a (not too difficult) scale model of the hut and a conventional hut and test them in a wind tunnel situation. The silo withstood the greatest wind speed by allowing air to pass over and under the silo that created an effect of equalizing the pressure, whereas in a conventional hut the wind over the roof ridge created a vacuum on the lee side that tended to lift the roof and hut. The design to reduce wind resistance could only be bettered by adding domed ends to each end of the silo which was impractical as the door and windows were on the flat ends.

Some of the design advantage was compromised by placing rock ballast in the wire baskets between the cradles but the psychological comfort in knowing that the silo was solidly weighed down was worth it.

The demise

Gardiner Hut continued to be a popular with mountaineers as the mid-way stopping place on the way to Empress, a refuge for climbers descending from the summit ridge of Aoraki/Mt Cook or as a base to cross the glacier to Baker saddle and the south ridge of La Perouse.

Unfortunately the hut didn’t last as long as its predecessor as during the late winter in 2014 the hut was hit by the rock and ice avalanche that originated off the south ridge of the low peak of Aoraki/Mt Cook. The hut was severely damaged by the debris of the toilet and a huge boulder that hit the rear of the hut. 

During the summer the hut was dismantled and flown out to the village area. The continued ablation of the Hooker Glacier has accelerated the slumping of the lateral moraines creating a difficult access problem to Hooker Hut which led to its removal in 2015, now only Empress sits forlornly at the head of the Hooker Valley.

DOC Media Release

15 April 2015

 Removal of Gardiner Hut 

The Department of Conservation (DOC) has completed the removal of Gardiner Hut which was deemed beyond repair after a significant rock avalanche in July 2014. 

The remote hut, used only by experienced alpine climbers, was removed over two visits. The process involved DOC staff blasting a large rock that had caused most of the damage. The barrel-shaped hut was then cut into three pieces and flown out by The Helicopter Line. 

“This was a massive rock fall and it is testimony to the hut’s placement and design that the structure survived at all,” says DOC Aoraki Conservation Services Manager, Mike Davies. 

“The current loss of Gardiner Hut illustrates the challenge of building and maintaining huts in Aoraki’s dynamic geological landscape. This situation is further exacerbated by glacial recession.” 

The rock avalanche occurred on the south face of Aoraki/Mt Cook, from below the Hillary Ridge immediately northwest of Endeavor Col. The avalanche damaged Gardiner Hut moving it off its foundations and destroying the adjacent toilet. 

The hut has been closed since the avalanche pending a detailed onsite engineering assessment once the site became clear of snow. An assessment in March 2015 concluded that the hut was beyond repair and would need to be removed. 

“The department will now work with the public and our partners towards a decision regarding the replacement of the hut,” says Mike Davies. 

“This will link in to the review of the Park Management Plan later this year. It will need input from Ngāi Tahu in recognition of Aoraki’s cultural importance and its Tōpuni status, as well as the Conservation Board, and alpine users of the park.” 

The rock avalanche also severely damaged the Pudding Rock Cables and anchors that provide critical access to Gardiner Hut and the upper Hooker Valley climbing routes on the western side of Aoraki. This includes a number of routes including the classic Grand Traverse, South Face of Hicks, La Perouse and Nazomi. The department plans to replace these cables next summer. 

Background notes 

Gardiner Hut timeline

1894:  Gardiner Bivvy known as the “Lower Cook Bivouac” was established in the Hooker Valley.  This was a tent site.

1934:  First Gardiner Hut built sleeping up to five people. The original materials were taken to Hooker Hut using packhorses and from there, on the backs of guides Mick Bowie, Vic Williams, Percy Williams and Felix Harvey. The builder was A. Leechy of Timaru who was assisted by Vic Williams and Mick. Mick and Vic named the hut after Katie Gardiner—a well-known English climber they had guided over several years. 

1977:  The old hut was replaced by a barrel-shaped building. The hut was built in Mount Cook village and flown to the site in four loads. It was pieced together over four days on site and slept around eight people. The builders were Mal Clarbrough, Ken Joyce and Ian Whitehouse. 

2014:  July 16 – a large rock avalanche struck Gardiner Hut, demolishing the toilet and severely damaging the hut. An initial GNS Science assessment estimated that a mass of between 0.5 and 1 million cubic metres of rock collapsed “without any prior warning or apparent trigger”. It travelled a distance of 3.9 km. 

2015:  March – the hut was cut into sections, the interior stripped out and everything flown to the village.  

Katie Gardiner

Katie Gardiner was a leading woman climber of her era. She was a late starter, climbing Aoraki/Mt Cook at the age of 42 in the season of 1928/29, guided by Vic Williams and Lud Mahan.  This was the ninth ascent by a woman. 

Katie climbed all year round between New Zealand, Canada and the Swiss Alps over a 10-year period, during which she became known as one the foremost women climbers in the world. She died in 1974 at the age of 88

Barron Saddle Hut

After the tragic loss of 4 lives in the Three Johns Hut on Barron Saddle there was no enthusiasm to rebuild on the site but the area received a replacement in 1981 with a design that is basically the same as Gardiner Hut but of a greater diameter. It is situated about 400 metres to the east of Barron Saddle. 

Although not involved in the replacement hut for the ill-fated Three Johns Hut, I was involved in the need for a replacement.

In 1977 there were six Rangers at Mt Cook, four of which took week about turns to be the ‘Duty Ranger’ taking a 7 day responsibility for the routine operation of the Visitor Centre. Early morning duties involved raising the flag, make weather observations from the met station in front of The Hermitage and report to the met office also monitor the climber’s ‘intentions book’ and to check if any parties were overdue from their intended departure date. Each evening at 7pm radio calls were made to the huts to transmit weather forecast and to check on the well-being of the hut occupants, especially those that had been out on a climb or moving between huts.

During one of my weeks as Duty Ranger I was calling around the huts which began with ZLVA2 Three Johns, followed by ZLVA3 Mueller and so on until all the huts had been contacted. Usually there was no response from Three Johns as it was rarely visited due to its remote site on Barron Saddle at the head Dobson Valley and the Mueller Glacier with few challenging peaks in its vicinity.

This night there was a response from 4 members of the Wanganui Tramping club that had crossed from the Landsborough Valley and intended to travel out to the Mt Cook Village the following day. The weather forecast wasn’t good. 

During that evening and night a severe electrical storm hit the area with very strong winds and torrential rain. The following day was also poor weather so climbers were generally expected to remain hut bound. That evening the routine radio calls were made with no response from Three Johns Hut, with such an electrical storm it would not have been unusual for the radio aerial to have been hit and the radio put out of operation so there was no immediate concern.

A reasonable day followed with no news from the Three Johns group Chief Ranger Barrie Thomas decided that a follow-up was needed. Having completed the office-bound, duty ranger week I was keen for a trip into the hills so along with Hugh Logan we were asked to take a walk onto the Mueller Range to search for the ‘missing’ group. I was sure that from Meueller Hut the Three John’s Hut could be seen but a scan through binoculars didn’t reveal any sighting of the hut, but did my memory serve me right? In haste we pushed on to Barron Saddle to find that the hut had been torn from its site with the debris tossed into the gully on the Dobson (leeward) side of the saddle. Possibly, the classic example of gale-force winds roaring over the hut and creating a huge uplift that tore the hut from the extremely exposed site.

After the tragic loss of 4 lives in the Three Johns Hut on Barron Saddle there was no interest from the Canterbury Mountaineering Club (hut owners) in any rebuilding of the hut. The head of the Mueller Valley wasn’t particularly popular with climbing groups but more popular with groups undertaking alpine crossings from the Hopkins Valley into MCNP. The area did need a hut and a site selected about 400 metres to the east of Barron Saddle. During 1981 a replacement hut was built that was basically the same design as Gardiner Hut but of a greater diameter that accommodated 8 bunks.